So, I guess we'll just keep using this thread.... OK. I can do that.
Charlie's gone, and I'm conflicted. On the one hand, Charlie has always been a little hard for me to watch. His flagrant flagellation of the English language had me grinding down my teeth every time I had to watch him. On the other hand, though he was no mastermind by any stretch of the imagination, he was enough of a leader to recognize who the outsiders were (well, OK, Mission Nikpossible made that pretty obvious, but hey), but to pull them together to work together against the growing juggernaut of Derek, Jacob and Hodges, taking away their minion, Jessica. But then, I really hate watching people devolve into a near-constant state of inebriation, and Charlie did that with abandon throughout his time in this game. Conversely, he was the last hope of a plot twist that could have shaken up the remainder of the game and made it a little more exciting to watch than it's currently destined to become.
Ultimately, though, I think it was a positive.
But Christina.... I wish she had a plan. I really, really wish she had a plan. Because, without a plan, her best bet was to stick with the Floaters' Alliance. She could get lucky and win a critical challenge that leads her to FTC with people she could potentially beat. WITH a plan... her flip could make more sense. Dispose of Charlie, THEN band with Joanne and Yapp, and expose Jacob's intention to boot Derek, and pull Derek into a plan to remove Jacob and Hodges (his only real competition at FTC). Then axe Derek, of course, giving her a choice between Yapp and Joanne for a F2, or both of them for F3. With those plays under her belt, she'd win hands down, and deserve it.
But, unfortunately, I don't think she has a plan. I think she's banded with people she likes and thinks she can trust. Poor girl. I believe that only Hodges has any current intention of being at FTC with her. The other two ore far too enamored of the idea of fighting the good fight and having a final cage match battle on Day 39.
To quote Samuel L. Jackson at pretty much this whole cast.... "English, motherfucker; do you SPEAK it!?" And to mis-quote him one more time, "Say 'like' again.... SAY 'LIKE' AGAIN!" Yeah, I'm a stodgy old bastard, and think people should try to speak in complete, coherent sentences using proper English (except when ironically not doing so). Sue me. But c'mon, man. This cast is just awful. Derek, "like" is your personal "um". Charlie, CONSTANTLY using the wrong words, or mispronouncing anything longer than two syllables. Jacob unable to discern how and when to use "I", "me", and "myself". And I've already mocked Jessica plenty for one season.
OK, so maybe it shouldn't bother me as much as it does. Maybe that's my pet peeve. I mean, I DO notice every failure of proofreaders and editors in professionally published books... Yeah, I really should just let it go.
PREDICTIONSIt would be really easy to say that things will go according to plan; that the boot order will be Yapp, Joanne, Derek, (Christina, if it's a F2), and that Jacob wins hands-down. So easy, in fact, that I'm really tempted to just say that and let it go. But instead, I'm going to pretend that the season isn't already over and weave a tale of drama and surprising plot twists so that, even if the opposite does happen, at least, having written otherwise, we can pretend that in an alternate reality somewhere out there in the multiverse, this game progressed in an exciting and unpredictable way. SO, here it goes.
This next round, Christina starts to realize that the horses she's hitched her wagon to are thoroughbreds, and that she's a healthy but slow running plough horse. Realizing that she's not crossing any finish lines in that race, she decides to finally take control of her own game and has a chat with Joanne, to this effect: So, Yapp is going this round, but next round will be our time to make a move. Wait for it, and be ready. Yapp voted out at F6.
When Jacob makes his brutal but inevitable betrayal comments to Hodges and Christina, she uses that to spark off Derek's mutiny, informing him that she already has Joanne chomping at the bit to make a move. Believing the game to be wrapped up tight with a bow, Jacob never sees his blindside coming. Jacob voted out at F5.
Hodges, realizing that his position is all but written, approaches Christina and Derek to please spare him, but Christina has anticipated this and primed Derek with the certain knowledge that Hodges was 100% behind the plot to vote him. That leaves Hodges all to herself, and knowing that she definitely doesn't want to be sitting next to Derek at FTC, uses Hodges' vote, along with Joanne's, to boot Derek.
And that's the F3. Christina's gambit fails to pay out, though, because F3 is the FTC scenario. Hodges wins by a narrow margin, pulling it out by only one vote, and that largely due to iB1tterness.
This is not a very adjacent Alternate Universe, I'll admit. Much more likely is that something goes wrong in the plan to boot Derek, and Christina is the last to know what happened. But hell, it was fun to dream.